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Bloggers imprisoned in mass sentencing in Vietnam
Committee to Protect Journalists, Jan 9, 2013 Vietnamese activists and bloggers stand for sentencing in court. (AFP/Vietnam News Agency) Bangkok, January 9, 2013–At least five independent bloggers were sentenced today to harsh jail terms in Vietnam, according to local and international news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns this move and calls on Vietnamese…
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Vietnamese blogger reports sexual assault by officials
By Shawn W. Crispin / CPJ Southeast Asia Representative Vietnam’s crackdown on independent bloggers hit a new low in recent days with reports of sexual violence perpetrated by state officials against a prominent online reporter. In a disturbing first person account posted Friday to the Danlambao collective blog, Nguyen Hoang Vi detailed how police officials beat and stripped her and ordered…
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Vietnam jails activists up to 13 years for ‘subversion’
Los Angeles Times By Emily Alpert January 9, 2013, 1:25 p.m. Fourteen activists were convicted of subversion Wednesday in Vietnam and sentenced to up to 13 years in prison, in an unusually large case centering on their alleged ties to a banned democracy group. Vietnamese state media reported that the dissidents had been sent…
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UN’s refugee office in Cambodia shrinks
The Phnom Penh Post, 08 January 2013 By Abby Seiff Montagnard hill tribesmen ride in the back of a truck after emerging from dense forest near the Vietnam-Cambodia border, in Ratanakkiri province in 2004. Photograph: Reuters Facing financial constraints and a steep decline in asylum seekers to Cambodia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cut…
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The South China Sea: “Lake Beijing”
The Diplomat, Jan 7, 2013 What is a “lake” in maritime strategy? Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe published an op-ed in Project Syndicate last week maintaining that Chinese power is increasingly transfiguring the South China Sea into “Lake Beijing.” That sounds ominous. To counteract China’s primacy in southern waters, argues Abe, Japan must augment its…
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Vietnam’s Blogosphere: The Battleground for Rival Factions of the Ruling Communists
The Time – Dec 27, 2012 Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party is not looking back on a good year. The country’s economy is in trouble; the authoritarian leadership is split; and what appear to be rival Communist Party factions, seeking to rouse the dissenting voices of social media for their own ends, have unleashed a wave…
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Challenging ASEAN:The US Pivot Through Southeast Asia’s Eyes
December 2012 By Donald K. Emmerson The US pivot toward Asia has been viewed largely through the lens of American security and economic competition with China. Within that context, writes Donald K. Emmerson, Washington is also deepening its involvement in ASEAN in terms of both security and trade. At stake is ASEAN’s vaunted centrality as…
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State secrets revealed in Vietnam
By David Brown Asia Times, Dec 22, 2012 One afternoon in mid-December, Colonel Tran Dang Thanh shared his views on foreign affairs with an audience of deans and professors drawn from Hanoi’s many universities. Like all Vietnamese Communist Party business, Thanh’s comments were considered state secrets. However, unbeknownst to Thanh, who teaches at Vietnam’s top…
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Vietnamese Bloggers Recognized for Commitment to Rights
5 Win Prestigious Hellman/Hammett Awards Human Rights Watch (New York, December 20, 2012) – Five Vietnamese bloggers are among an extraordinary group of 41 people from 19 countries who have received the prestigious Hellman/Hammettaward recognizing writers who demonstrate courage and conviction in the face ofpolitical persecution, Human Rights Watch said today. They are Huynh Ngoc…
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Vietnam’s Fragile Middle Class
DW, 17 Dec, 2012 A new middle class emerged for the first time in Vietnam in the 1990s. It has won a few freedoms, but remains fragile. Now, the global economic crisis threatens to undo the achievements. “Supermarket, supermarket, supermarket” cries Mai Chi, the four-year-old daughter of Tuyen and Lien, as she bounces up and…
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